You learn a lot of lessons in 45 years of business. I had a chance to capture many of those lessons in a blog post a few years ago titled Not Sad about our 40’s: 41 Lessons learned in 41 years. These all remain true and still serve as a guide for our growing business. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Purpose without profit is impossible; profit without purpose is pointless. You need both.
- You’re going to get it wrong. When you do, take responsibility for it, learn from it, and move on.
- Just keep swimming. Keep moving. Keep growing. Keep learning. Keep adjusting.
- Find great mentors who will challenge you often and tell you the truth even when it hurts.
- You will never have all the information you want to make the call, make it anyway.
As much as I love that list, and as timeless as all 41 of those lessons are, it will never be complete. The ever-evolving landscape of business is the ultimate teacher. I continue to learn lessons, many of which we probably knew or at least should have known. I bet we could now publish the 45 lessons we’ve learned in the past 45 years. Never fear, we won’t punish you with that, primarily because one lesson from the last 5 years stands out more than any other.
Chasing results is a distraction to the process.
Here at FZ, we don’t lack ambition. FZer’s are hungry to grow, to take on new challenges, to solve new problems, to push themselves and the company. The combination of blue-collar grittiness and a desire to keep learning and growing has become foundational to our culture over the last 45 years. We are proud of how this has evolved, and it will always be one of my favorite things about the company we’ve built.
Yet, it has gotten us in trouble as well. When we find ourselves chasing results, whether that be growth, safety statistics, or productivity improvements, we become distracted from the foundational processes that enable us to achieve the results we desire. We forget that results are the output, the lagging indicators of the focused actions that take place each day throughout FZ.
Dream big, act small.
Big dreams and aspirations have their place. They motivate us, inspire us, and give us the grit and fortitude to keep going when the challenges we face seem insurmountable. But they are also dangerous. Big dreams and aspirations can bait us into thinking that somehow our enthusiasm for the future will be enough to achieve it. We forget that results are produced by doing the small things day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Baseball and business.
I know that sports and business analogies can often result in deep sighs and eye rolls. Bear with me as I connect baseball and business for a moment. Baseball is the ultimate dream-big, act-small venue.
The Major League season consists of 162 games, plus spring training, and if you’re lucky, the postseason. All in, the Major League baseball season stretches over 9 long and grinding months. The length of the season and nature of the game ensure that its players and teams will go through hot streaks where everything is going their way and slumps where nothing seems to be working.
Elite baseball players have learned the same thing we have learned in our business. Managing these ups and downs requires a relentless focus on the process. It makes no difference if they are up or down; the absolute best follow the same process day in and day out.
Top players have been working on their game since childhood, yet despite decades of swinging the bat and fielding ground balls, they still take a set number of swings daily in the batting cage. They still take a set number of ground balls in the field. They still make a set number of throws. Elite coaches and managers are regularly reminding rookies and veterans alike to trust the process.
Trust the process.
The same is true in business. Your business is cyclical, and so is ours. We have times when it feels like we can’t lose, sometimes these last for years. But we also have slumps when it feels like things just aren’t going our way. Regardless of whether you are up or down, it is important to remember to trust your processes.
At FZ, we call our processes The FZ Way. The FZ Way is made up of the core processes that determine how we run our business, how we approach pursuing new projects and customers, how we deliver the results our customers expect, and how we track and measure our successes and failures.
These processes aren’t any more thrilling than a baseball player taking fifty ground balls every day over decades, yet they have proven themselves. Our continued success remains tied to our ability to stop chasing results and remain focused on the process. I suspect yours might too.
